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Public Speaking for Interpreters

I was digging around the other day, looking for good material to use in my workshop on communication skills for interpreters. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I found myself (once again!) on the website of the National Network for Interpreting. The NNI site is a lot like the Interpreter Training Resources site and Lourdes de Rioja’s video blog, A Word in Your Ear: no matter how often you visit, you always seem to find something new. Aren’t we interpreters lucky that these people take the time to prepare and compile all of these resources for us!

Anyway, what I want to share with you briefly here today are two resources prepared by the people at NNI to help train interpreting students in public speaking skills.

She seems to have it all figured out - except for maybe the dress code

The first is a slide presentation called Good public speaking – specific skills that walks students through the skills required for good public speaking. The best part comes on the fourth slide, where we are shown two short videos – the first is a case study of how NOT to present a consecutive interpretation, and the second is, of course, an example of how to get it right. The whole exercise takes only about 15 minutes to run through, and it is great for new students who might not have thought about the importance of communication skills in interpreting before.

The second resource, called Good public speaking – register, is a series of slides looking at the use of register in speaking. Here, students are asked to listen to a few short speeches given in different registers, and then given a short quiz (well, two, actually) about what they’ve learned. I won’t tell you how I did on the quiz part because it’s too embarrassing – maybe if I had actually listened to the speeches, instead of just skipping straight ahead to the questions, I might have done a bit better. Anyway, try it out for yourself and see how you do.

More interpreting fun next week! I’ve got a couple of great guest posts lined up for you, so please stay tuned…

6 thoughts on “Public Speaking for Interpreters”

This will be the most boring comment ever. There is an “a” missing in straight and a question mark in “Aren’t we interpreters lucky…” . Typos happen to me a lot, just spreading the editor love.
Also, the NNI site has very interesting material and tips. Thanks for sharing it! Cheers!

‎Hi All! If you are in the NJ/NY area on Aug 11th & 12th, we are offering a 2-day Interpreter’s Consecutive Workshop for anyone who’s interested… please share. Increase accuracy in your consecutive interpretation by developing effective note-taking,
better listening skills and a better memory.http://interpretrain.com/https://www.facebook.com/Interpretrain

I located this page via Google and found it interesting and helpful. I’m a interpreting teacher and currently give lectures on public speaking to my M.A students in interpreting. Hope to see more of your insightful posts on this topic.